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Dell faces class-action lawsuit in China(Business Daily Update Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Author: sg The US-based PC giant Dell is facing fraud accusation by Chinese customers. A Shanghai court will hear a petition against Dell by an IT engineer and Beijing consumers are preparing for legal action against Dell. Consumers in Anhui, Jilin provinces are also considering same actions. The anger is caused by Dell's substitution of Intel Conroe T2300E CPU for Intel Conroe T2300 in their laptops. A buyer found the CPU in his Dell notebook was Intel T2300E which had been supposed to be Intel T2300 according to his order when he tried to upgrade it three days after the delivery. He brought it to light on the Internet and recorded Intel's response to his complaint. The message prompted hundreds of Dell buyers to check their own laptops and they confirmed the same result. Zhang Min, the Shanghai consumer who is the first Chinese plaintiff in this scandal, ordered via fax a Dell laptop for 8398.26 Yuan on June 15th, which was then delivered on June 22nd. He checked the CPU and found it was T2300E, instead of the T2300 agreed upon order. In a letter to the consumers' association in Shanghai and Zhejiang, Dell apologized for the "ambiguity and misunderstanding" caused by Dell's failure to make corresponding adjustments on the name of the processor which, according to Intel, does not necessarily include "E". After Intel released T2300E on June 3rd, Dell should have made the transition from T2300 to T2300E. Dell repeatedly stressed to press that the chip replacement would not cause any loss to users either in terms of prices or use. T2300 has the Virtualization (VT) while T2300 E has not. Dell said the VT is only for future use. But consumers obviously are not convinced by Dell's excuse. An IT professional said the virtual technology would certainly make a difference on prices. There is a report that the replacement saves Dell 300 Yuan for each computer. That has not been confirmed by Dell or any other authoritative departments. Zhang's lawyer insisted that Dell's failure to perform the order and inform the change was a commitment of commercial fraud and should be held responsible for the consequence. Their claim includes the refund of the full amount of cost for the laptop, the same amount for indemnity, and fees for the lawsuit. Zhang is angry about the way that Dell deals with his complaint. Dell did not recognize the chip had been replaced at first. It then confessed it but claimed that the T2300's virtual tech is not necessary in a laptop so T2300E is enough for use. Dell apologized and offered a return. "I bought it because I will use it every day. It took them a week to deliver it. If it was returned, it would take more time. The virtual technology is hardly used now, but that does not mean it will not be used in the future. No one buys a laptop just for today's use," Zhang said. He is dissatisfied with Dell's response which he thinks does not take consumers' complaints seriously and will not solve the problem. Before taking the legal action, Zhang's lawyer sent a letter to Dell but did not get any reply. "Consumers are the disadvantaged. We bring them to court because we want them to really respect consumers," Zhang said. "As far as I know, there were several cases of infringement on consumers' interests. But they have all ended up with no results. This time however, I hope, it will be solved fairly by law," said his lawyer, who is likely to serve more clients in similar cases. An expert on law in Shanghai believes that Zhang's appeal is exemplary. When consumers take the same action, Dell will be involved into class-action lawsuit. "If consumers win, it will force multinationals to soften their long-held arrogance toward Chinese consumers and make it easier for Chinese customers to protect their rights," said the expert. |